Oscar Wilde's comedies as literary criticism

Aristophanes' comedy “Frogs” is considered the first example of literary criticism in drama. A critical look at contemporary works is evident in many playwrights' works; they present it in prologues, epilogues and dedications, manifesting to the audience their views on the purpose, objectives, artistic features of their works, and the peculiarity of the approach to the chosen topic. Such methods were used by William Shakespeare, Ben Johnson, John Dryden, Thomas Shadwell, William Congreve, Colly Cibber and many others. Literary criticism is rarely found in drama texts, and quite infrequently authors show by their works themselves “how to write”. The peculiarity of O. Wilde's criticism in his treatises, aesthetic miniatures, letters, is that the author never considers in detail the shortcomings of the discussed works; he prefers to present his own views on art, creativity, and the role of the author. The same pattern we can see in his comedies. O. Wilde's comedy is an interesting example of the literary critical work; it mocks ironically the plots and stylistic patterns of contemporary plays, expresses aesthetic views of the author. According to O. Wilde, criticism always goes hand in hand with philosophy and his comedies reflect his thoughts about the regularities of life. His philosophy is unreal. The philosophical aspect of his comedy is in its form: the comedy genre, external and internal conflicts (illustrating the idea of the world's duality), and abundance of accidents as an expression of the triumph of irrational ideas. Techniques that are used in contemporary drama only to entertain the audience, are filled in O. Wilde's ones with deeper content and emphasize the critical perspective of the author on the dramatic works at end of the XIXth century. This combination of a brilliant form with the critical skill and profound reflections on the laws of being in the history of drama can be found, perhaps, only in Shakespeare.